Ten years after the great California recall election of 2003, it is sobering to look back and remember how excited many voters were about bouncing Gray Davis out of office and making Arnold Schwarzenegger governor — and to realize how little it really changed for state politics and the recall’s Republican leaders.

But look back we must. In retrospect, the experience teaches Californians lessons that may be applied statewide again someday and are being applied in local cities this year.

There was a sense then that the Golden State was losing its optimistic luster. That the Capitol was dysfunctional, divided by partisanship, self-serving office holders and special interests. The budget was out of control. An energy crisis and the bursting of the dot-com bubble demanded leadership. And leadership was sorely lacking.

Some of this trouble was Gov. Davis’ fault, and a lot wasn’t. But all of it crashed down around his narrow shoulders. Less than a year after being elected to a second term by a narrow margin, the Democrat faced a historic recall election on Oct. 7, 2003.

It is telling that we remember the that election more for the circus atmosphere of the brief campaign, for the weird array of candidates, than for any substantive change it brought to Sacramento.

The 135 candidates to replace Davis included seasoned office holders — Cruz Bustamante, Tom McClintock. It included other people of substance — Peter Ueberroth, the L.A. Olympics chief, and Arianna Huffington, the future founder of The Huffington Post. But the top 10 vote-getters also included former sitcom actor Gary Coleman, porn star Mary Carey and Hustler publisher Larry Flynt.

It wasn’t hard for Schwarzenegger, the great American success story, an Austrian immigrant who built himself up (literally) to success in bodybuilding, movies and business. And it certainly wasn’t hard for Schwarzenegger to stand out from the bland Davis. The recall won big, and so did Schwarzenegger in the separate vote for Davis’ replacement.

A moderate Republican unsullied by a long career in politics, Schwarzenegger was overwhelmingly popular in his early months and had every chance to make a difference. He would win re-election easily. But his results fell far short of what even his biggest boosters — and particularly his biggest Republican boosters — hoped for.

His biggest achievements were anything but conservative dreams: He signed Assembly Bill 32, landmark legislation authored by a Democrat to limit greenhouse-gas emissions. He pushed successfully for the election-reform ballot initiatives that produced open primaries and a citizen redistricting commission.

Meanwhile, the state budget problems that crushed Davis got worse. At the end of Schwarzenegger’s seven years as governor, California government’s fundamental problems remained. He exited with 23 percent approval.

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Arnold’s victory did not herald a Republican return to power. Democrats now hold all seven statewide offices and control of both houses of the Legislature. California politics, seen nationally as wild and crazy a decade ago, is back to being too predictable.

The awesome power to recall a duly elected public official for virtually any reason should never be limited by law. It is vital to maintaining the people’s ultimate right to choose their leaders through majority votes, and to hold them accountable.

But that power should be constrained by collective wisdom and common sense. Recall elections are appropriate when they let voters consider removing office holders who broke the law or failed in their duty to responsibly manage public resources. Such is the case in the Nov. 5 election to possibly recall three city officials in bankrupt San Bernardino. Such was not the case when 7 percent of registered voters turned out in July to recall two Fontana school board members over what was essentially a personal dispute.

A recall is not a magic remedy. One borne of mere disagreement over policy, or vague disappointment with a man’s or woman’s leadership, is bound to do less good than its proponents imagine and citizens deserve.

Such, sad to say, is the case with the California gubernatorial recall a decade ago.